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Going Solo

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Going Solo

Developing a Home-Based Consulting Business from the Ground Up

McGraw-Hill,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

The joy of parachuting in: if you have solid business expertise — and the willingness to sell yourself constantly — you can develop a home-based practice as a consultant.

Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Overview
  • For Beginners

Recommendation

William J. Bond presents a guide for people who want to become home-based consultants. His manual covers every aspect of freelance consulting, from finding, landing, and keeping clients, to maintaining records and understanding the marketplace. This common-sense book is part narrative and part workbook, including questionnaires and fill-in list forms. It is detailed, but if you have any experience as a solo practitioner, the elementary basic business practices outlined may cover material you already know. getAbstract recommends this book as a primer for anyone who wants to become a consultant working from a home-office and to those who are already doing exactly that and would like a few more tips about how to make a better living at it.

Summary

Success as a Specialty Consultant

If you want to be the visiting expert, the one with the clip board or the fine leather briefcase who swoops in, solves a problem, collects a big check, and departs, you have one purpose: a consultant helps customers succeed. In turn, of course, this helps the consultant succeed. More than ever before, specialty consultants are in demand in many fields. You can make ample money as a consultant, if you’re good - both at marketing yourself and at consulting in your field of expertise. The key to success as a consultant is very simple: competence. Show clients, directly or through referrals, that you have the skill to help them.

Consultants must be able to put themselves in their clients’ shoes, focus on what it takes to get each assignment, diagnose the information the client needs or the problem the client wants solved, and then follow through.

Getting Started

Consulting is a business you can manage from home, but it isn’t necessarily going to be an instant success. Getting your consulting business going involves a lot of trial and error, since some clients will hire you quickly and have a defined sense of what they want...

About the Author

William J. Bond has spent the past thirty years studying, researching, teaching, and writing about successful people in home-based businesses. His book 1001 Ways to Beat the Time Trap was chosen by Publishers Weekly as a major book of the year and was a selection of the Money book club. His Home-Based Business book series has covered mail order, catalog, and newsletter businesses from home.

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